Firefox

[Aidan Fox]

He breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Yeah, actually... I was trying to find a place called Cullen's Institute. I know it's around here somewhere, and I know it's mutant-friendly, and the fact is I don't have anywhere to stay right now."

Aidan glanced down at his bike despondently. "It's sort of a long story."

[Banner Laverick]

"OOOOH CULLENS! I go there!"

She immediately grabbed his hand, ready to fly away then and there.

"You'll like it there. It's not my favorite place, cos, you know, I have friends and a boyfriend back home, but it's still pretty cool. They teach you how to use your powers, and you get your own room. Plus free food that you don't have to cook, yay..."

Her cheeks flushed a deep shade of red. "Uhm, yeah. So, I can take you there, if you don't mind being carried."

[Aidan Fox]

The sudden outburst was unexpected. But at least he knew he'd found... or had been found by... the right girl.

"Well, it's the only way I'm getting anywhere. So how do we--"

A thick cloud chose that moment to pass in front of the sun. And something heavy scraped through the woods below them. Aidan started and glanced down past the guardrail, but he couldn't see anything.

[Banner Laverick]

Okay, she did jump when they both heard a strange scrapping noise coming from the woods. She started to pull him away from the guardrail, getting ready to pick him up and just fly the heck outta there.

"I carry you, or you can hold onto me. I think, maybe, we should get going..."

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan didn't resist in the slightest. "Yeah, uh, sounds good... let's go!"

He pulled his jacket back on so his hands would be free. "Just grab me around the waist, I can cover us if we need it--"

There was a low, bubbling growl that called to mind a lion sniffing around its cage at feeding time. About fifty feet below them a sapling bent aside and snapped back upright again.

[Banner Laverick]

Banner nodded, wrapping her arms around his waist. They were airborne in seconds, over the forest where the weird noises came from.

"Cover us if we need it? Hopefully we'll be long gone before whatever that is gets up the hill..."

[Aidan Fox]

"Yeah, only problem is--"

Something crashed upward through the branches below. Aidan looked down and caught an impression of wings out of the corner of his eye.

"...these things can fly!"

The monster let out a scream, like squealing glass and metal. Somehow it didn't appear quite as substantial in the daylight as it had at night, like it was a shadow, semi-transparent, a spidery, demonic figure with the wingspan of a small-engine plane. With a surge from its wings it soared rapidly toward Banner and her burden.

[Banner Laverick]

"Lovely."

With a grunt, she tightened her grip on Aidan, flying as fast as possible, as high as she could go. Maybe it wouldn't be able to catch them if they got too high? Whatever it was, it was fast approaching them, shrieking like one of the Ring Wraiths from LOTR. She turned to face it, putting him in front of her.

"Care to cover us, maybe distract it long enough that we can get the heck out of here?!"

[Aidan Fox]

"I'll do what I can, just keep us moving!"

Somehow, Aidan didn't seem at all discomfited by being hauled around by a flying teenager, and he even leaned into Banner's aerobatic maneuver as a matter of reflex. He held out his hands between himself and the monster and fired off a cobalt-blue jet of flame. It twisted and coiled in midair like a huge snake, and then a head formed on the end and snapped at the creature. The banshee howled and wheeled away, but already it was circling back, gaining altitude again.

"That'll buy us some distance. If you've got some kinda turbo, now's the time to use it!"

[Banner Laverick]

She nodded, zipping away from the banshee as fast as she could go. Banner had never seen anything like it, or anything that was as fast as she was when it came to flying that wasn't like, a plane or something. The fact that she had Aidans' extra weight wasn't helping...although, the thought of tossing him at the creature and flying home had crossed her mind.

[Aidan Fox]

They passed into a low-hanging cloud, and the sudden cold spray made Aidan glad he'd put his jacket back on. He'd lost sight of the monster, and he hoped that meant it had lost sight of them.

Though he wasn't entirely sure that thing flew by sight.

When they broke out into the clear air again, he craned his neck from one side to the other, scanning the horizons, and he didn't see the thing. "I think we lost it," he said hopefully.

That was when he looked straight down. There it was, matching their pace like a shadow on the ground, gliding about a hundred feet below them. Which meant it'd catch them as soon as they tried to descend.

"Um. Check that. We've got a problem."

[Banner Laverick]

"What the hell is that thing?"

Banner had glanced down, seeing it matching her pace below them. There would be no way to land without having to fight it off. Somehow, she didn't think pure brute force would work on it.

"And why is it following you? What's the deal?"

[Aidan Fox]

Aidan just let himself dangle from Banner's arms. He didn't want to use up his strength just riding along in case he needed it later.

"Yeah, um, it's a long story."

[Banner Laverick]

"It's a long drop, and I think our friend there would have fun tossing you around like a cat with a mouse if I let you go..."

She let her grip loosen. Just a bit. This being cryptic crap was not cool.

[Aidan Fox]

"Gah!" Aidan tried to grab a hold of her elbows just in case, but his angle was terrible. "All right, all right. How do I explain this... Woah!"

He'd thought he felt her grip shift again. He twisted his neck to give her a dirty look, but he couldn't see her face. "It's from the Astral Plane. Whatever you want to call it, a demon, an evil spirit, a ghost... it doesn't belong in this world, it knows it, and it's really cranky about it."

[Banner Laverick]

"How did it get here?! Are you some kind of weirdo magician or something? This makes no sense!"

Banner adjusted her hold on him, circling back through the clouds. The shadow below them did the same. Crap.

[Aidan Fox]

"Like you flying makes any more sense?" Aidan snapped back. "Look, I don't know how it happened. It just did. And these things have been after me ever since."

He chewed his lip and looked down. "How far did you say it was to Cullen's?"

[Banner Laverick]

"Not that much farther, if I keep this speed up. And me flying makes WAY more sense than some smoke-demon creature from the Astral plane. Snap at me again and you can kiss the pavement."

She could feel a huge frown creeping onto her face. The sooner they got to Cullens, the better.

[Aidan Fox]

"Okay, geeze! You asked!"

He might've pointed out that she couldn't very well argue that the thing existed, and she was welcome to speculate as long as she got them the hell out of there, but he decided she didn't need any more incentive to drop him and fly.

Still, something was nagging him. "If we lead it to Cullen's... Is there gonna be anybody there able to stop it?"

[Banner Laverick]

"I'd hope so."

They flew in silence, Banner running that thought through her head. Surely SOMEONE at Cullens would be able to do something, right? If not a student, then for sure a teacher. The campus was coming into sight, only a minute or so away. Their "shadow" was still with them; hopefully someone was out and about on the grounds...